Trench terrain

Managed to get a terrain project nearly finished! This was a prototype trench section, I intend to do more to fit the length of a six foot table. Using principles from my favorite terrain building book, the now sadly out of print How to build wargames terrain by GW, I attempted to use bits of domestic waste for the build.

The starting point was hard board packing from a furniture box. I then used polystyrene packing glued to that base to form a rough outline of the trench. These were then cut back at a slight angle. Sections of corrugated sheet Slaters plastikard were glued in to form the revetment. Plastikard angle sections were then glued on top to restrain the sheets. The polystyrene was then covered in polyfilla. The front facing side of the trench had Renedra sandbags glued in to form a parapet. Using card robbed from a cornflakes packet, I cut them it into thin strips and glued it into the bottom of the trench to simulate duck boards. The model was then coated in sand gravel mix and PVA to fix it. Painted and inked in acrylic paints.

Very happy how the trench turned out, this can be used for WW1, WW2 and possibly Cold War Warsaw Pact trenches. Now to build five more sections and some gun pits!

The Hills are alive with the sound of swearing...

As a break from the ever tedious painting of  Napoleonic Prussians, I took the drastic step of updating a number of terrain pieces as well as a ramble through some nostalgia.

This motley collection comprised of scavenged 'prop painted' plastic GW hills from Ebay, some polystyrene GW hills and a cliff slope that I built when I was a student at Nottingham Trent uni. The cliff slope was built from mainly cardboard, masking tape and cork bark that was built circa 2000 when as a student I invested most of my loan into Wargames Foundry's factory shop outlet in Nottingham! With limited funds, salvaging waste to build terrain was an inexpensive way cover a battlefield. Some of the inspiration came from GW's amazing book; Wargames Terrain. The cork was bought from the now defunct PoP Enterprises of Nottingham and their now sadly departed wily owner, Fraser.

All the hills had their rock formations undercoated in raw umber and were dry brushed up in GW snakebite leather, light browns and finished with GW bleached bone to give the rock a limestone outcrop appearance to match my castle stonework and basing.

The plastic hills were flocked in Javis static grass. All the hills were detailed with static grass and Woodland Scenics clump foliage.

Whilst updating these hills, I was reminded of Army navigation lessons where we would learn the shape of a re-entrant, saddle, spur, convex and concave slope. Not that I ever heard a soldier describe a hill in real life in those terms!

 GW Plastic Hill

GW Plastic Hill

Hand lovingly hand bodged cardboard and cork slope and cliff. 28mm Perry Prussian Mounted Officer for scale.

GW plastic hill

 What was a rather dreary rock outcrop until painted up. GW Polystyrene Hill set.

Polystyrene Ruins 2

A little update on the ruins. The model was base coated black and progressively dry brushed up from Vallejo German Grey up a to a very light grey.

Metalwork was picked out in GW Dark Flesh and rust streaks added using Miniature Paints Chestnut brown ink. Windows were dry brushed in black to replicate the ravages of fire. The model will now be completed with weathering powders and some small clumps of grass. 

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Ivan surveying the ruins (Blacktree Designs).

Polystyrene Ruins

Many years ago, well actually twenty one years ago, Games Workshop released an inspirational book called  How to Make Wargames Terrain. This book shows hows to build terrain from waste packing and a few modelling supplies with stunning results.

A very well thumbed copy, that the 16 year old callow youth that was Russet Coat Captain bought from GW Milton Keynes in 1996.

Today whilst unpacking the collection after the recent house move, stumbled upon several polystyrene packing trays that used to come with GW miniatures. Armed with my well thumbed book, I set about fashioning a shelled out ruin as found on page 69 of the tome. 

Polystyrene packing tray by GW. Should I list this as OOP, Rare, and Limited Edition on ebay?

The crux of the job was re orientating the packing tray to turn it into a ruin. After a frantic session of hacking with a scalpel without lopping off my fingers (a rarity), the tray started to look like a ruin with  windows, doors and bullet holes. The assembly was then glued to a mount board base. On reflection some hard board or plastic card would of been a better base to avoid warping.

Off cuts of tray were then glued on to form rubble heaps. The building was then rendered with a thin layer of polyfilla to infill the polystyrene patina and to give it a concrete texture. Sections of wire were poked into the walls to give the impression of reinforce concrete as well as some off cuts of plastic girder and pipe. 

Lastly the ruin had basing material glued onto it and set in place with Woodland Scenic Cement. This will now be undercoated and painted at a latter date. With some perseverance the packing tray morphed into a convincing looking building after my nostalgic walk through 1996 and GW's superb How to Make Wargames Terrain book. It will be used for 40K, 1980s BAOR and possibly Bolt Action given a sympathetic paint job. 

After the recent move, the painting desk has become an adhoc affair, hopefully when time and the Memsahib permits, I will be able to install a suitable desk.